Need Advice Regarding Blu-ray Quality on 4K TV Sets (1 Viewer)

[tempest21]

I'm taking a shot that someone here might be able to help me with. Previously, I had a 32: HDTV for normal Blu-ray movies that I enjoyed. However, my family is moving into a new home and I'm looking at purchasing a new HDTV for my room. I'm not looking at something large, just something around 43", that I've been looking at some 43" 4K HDTV sets.

My question is, while I'll be buying some 4K movies in the future, I'm totally ignorant on 4K and I could use some advice. I'm asking about how the quality is when playing standard Blu-ray disks on a 4K HDTV. Now, I know that upconverting is oftentimes not very good. I remember researching it when I wanted to watch DVDs on my HDTV. But, I'm wondering about how clear the picture is for standard Blu-ray disks on a 4K TV set that is around 43" and would the quality of those Blu-rats affect how it's displayed on a 4K TV set that is under 50".

Before anyone asks, I'll probably end up purchasing an affordable 4K Blu-ray player at some point in the future.

 

[Matt Hough]

If the 4K TV you buy is of decent quality, I think you'll be amazed how glorious your Blu-rays will look. No need to fear on that account. I have a 65" OLED, and my old Blu-rays look absolutely splendid on it.

 

[tempest21]

Thank you. Before, I had to sell off my Blu-ray collection a few years ago while I waited for my disability to get approved. Over the past year, I've been building up my Blu-ray library once more and since I'll be moving into a new house, I'm going to be purchasing a new HDTV. There are some Samsung 43" to 50" 4K HDTV sets, some with ultra HD technology.

When I first started buying Blu-rays, I did my own research and discovered that upconverting movies from DVD to Blu-ray (DVDs playing on Blu-ray players were very horrible and I was more concerned about this when I started looking at 4K HDTVs since they are more affordable now. I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't wasting my money on continuing to buy Blu-ray movies if the quality is going to be akin to the DVD-to Blu-ray conversion.

I don't know much about it, which is why I've been trying to find out about the quality. Since Blu-rays are 1080p and 4K TVs are 2060p+, you can see where my confusion about the quality comes in at. I wanted to be sure the quality on my Blu-rays wouldn't impact me enjoying those movies and TV shows that I have on Blu-ray when I watch them on my new 4K HDTV that I'll be purchasing soon.

I just wanted to find out from someone who is more experienced with this type of problem.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Earlier LCD TVs were not particular forgiving to a lot of inputs, including DVDs.

Newer TVs seem to have gotten better at this, and good quality disc players (vs budget priced players) can also make a tremendous difference in playback quality of upscaled material. DVDs look much better on my Oppo player than they do on my cheap LG player.

 

[JohnRice]

You've stated several misconceptions that should probably be clarified. You mentioned upscaling of DVDs. As far as I know, all flat panel displays are fixed pixel. In other words, they can only display the resolution they have. So, any DVD played has to be upscaled. Period. It just depends on where the upscaling is done. Upscaling technology has improved so much since HD displays first appeared that it doesn't seem to be that much of an issue anymore. (BTW, Josh's reply was posted as I was writing this)

With any 4K display, the vast majority of what you watch will be upscaled, since there's very little 4K material to begin with. I doubt 4K will ever be as common as regular HD 1080 is today. Maybe in ten years, maybe not. It's also debatable if the difference of 4K is even visible with a display smaller than 55-65". I'm no display expert, but these are some pretty basic concepts. I only have one 4K display, which I just got a couple months ago. It's a cheap TCM 5 Series 43", and everything looks great on it. The one thing you can't expect much from is HDR material. Cheap displays like the TCL can process HDR, but the capabilities of them don't allow any real improvement in dynamic range, which is what HDR (high dynamic range) is about in the first place. You probably need a Quantum LED or OLED display to really take advantage of HDR.

You also mentioned Samsung displays with "Ultra HD Technology". That sounds like marketing. UHD and 4K are essentially the same thing.

 

[tempest21]

Thanks for the clarification. There was something else I wanted to know which is about 4K, 10Bit, HEVC. Now, I have some video files that are in this format and the Samsung 4K and the 4K Blu-ray player that I'm intending to purchase, I'm just wondering if current 4K players and 4K Samsung TVs are capable of playing these formats. I thought that these video formats were the same as 4K but I'm finding out that they're not exactly the same, that 4K is a better video format. I'm just wondering if 4K TVs and players that are currently available for purchase in stores are compatible with these formats.

 

[tempest21]

I'm getting closer to my purchase of a 4K TV and now I'm just trying to decide on what kind to purchase. I'm looking at either a 43" or 50" 4K TV and I've been seeing these off brand models out there. Like Insignia, TCL, Vizio. I'm curious if anyone has purchased any of these and wondered about impressions on these brands such as quality, pros and cons, are they also good for gaming, etc.? I'd be interested in hearing everyone's impressions.

 

[John_Bilbrey]

Vizio isn't really off-brand any longer. Their higher-end models typically get very good reviews, and their budget models perform on-par (or better) than the typical big names like Sony, Samsung, etc. I did quite a bit of research last year when I bought my new 4K display. What I determined was that brand wasn't necessarily the determining factor. The biggest difference that I saw was in going for one of the "nicer" models, regardless of the brand you decided on. Stepping up to a nicer model yielded the biggest improvement in features/performance, rather than a different brand. I ended up with a Samsung 8000-series. it's not their top of the line by a long shot, but several models up from the entry level. That's where the big difference in performance comes in. I went with a slightly smaller display to get into the upper range model line, rather than a larger entry model.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I'm getting closer to my purchase of a 4K TV and now I'm just trying to decide on what kind to purchase. I'm looking at either a 43" or 50" 4K TV and I've been seeing these off brand models out there. Like Insignia, TCL, Vizio. I'm curious if anyone has purchased any of these and wondered about impressions on these brands such as quality, pros and cons, are they also good for gaming, etc.? I'd be interested in hearing everyone's impressions.

I own a 2017 model Vizio M70-D3, and as @John_Bilbrey said above, Vizio is not an off-brand. I have been extremely happy with my Vizio -- I wanted something larger than the 67-inch DLP projection display it was replacing, and the OLED sets that size from LG were out of my price range. The 70-inch Vizio has been great, and the company's support has been terrific, too. When they issued a firmware update which added functionality that required some new remote control buttons, Vizio provided a new remote 100% free of charge (they picked up the shipping cost, too). Also, a member at another forum had the same set and was a trained ISF calibration specialist, and was nice enough to post all his settings after he calibrated his set. I had done a calibration myself using a disc, and was happy with the results until I plugged in his settings. It got every last ounce of picture quality out of the display for 1080p, HDR10 and Dolby Vision material (there are separate calibration settings for each).

 

[Dave Moritz]

I prefer to stick with Sony, Samsung and LG and if Panasonic was still selling tv's in the US they would be on the list. But Vizio is not bad even though a different company actually builds the tvs per Vizio specs and features. I do not care for TCL or Hisense product as they can be a little glichy and suffer from studder. At least they seem to before and maybe they have addressed those issues. And even if they have mostly cleared up serious issues still not interested! And I do not care to send my money to a pure Chinese company that has been subsidized by the Chinese government as far as LCD panels. Hope you find something that works for you but just know that there are plenty of good tv's by main line companies like Sony, LG and Samsung. And to add on to what others have said, I have had a Samsung, LG and Sony 4K displays and standard blu-ray looks great. As soon as you can I would add a 4K blu-ray player that will play everything from DVD to Blu-ray and of course 4K blu-ray. If you have a surround receiver it will have to have HDCP 2.2 to pass 4K.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I prefer to stick with Sony, Samsung and LG and if Panasonic was still selling tv's in the US they would be on the list. But Vizio is not bad even though a different company actually builds the tvs per Vizio specs and features.

We have a Samsung 4K display in our master bedroom, and overall I have been happy with the unit. A couple of caveats, though: (1) Samsung does not support Dolby Vision, if that's important to you, and (2) I had difficultly getting a picture I was happy with using the calibration tools at my disposal. I did finally find some settings online at RTINGS.com that gave me satisfactory image quality for both 1080p and 4K/HDR10 inputs, but I just couldn't get things dialed in myself using my calibration disc.